Elon Musk gifted almost $6 billion worth of Tesla stock to charity late last year, in one of the largest philanthropic donations in history. Photo: Reuters
Elon Musk gifted almost $6 billion (R90.8bn) worth of Tesla stock to charity late last year, in one of the largest philanthropic donations in history.
The world’s richest man donated more than 5 million shares in the electric-carmaker from November 19 to November 29, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The gift was worth about $5.7bn, based on average prices the days he sold the securities. The filing doesn’t name the charity, and shows an unidentified trust was involved in the transaction.
The donation occurred as Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, sparred with politicians including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over inequality, and a proposed wealth tax. In the weeks leading up to the gift, Musk suggested he’d sell stock if the United Nations proved $6bn would help solve world hunger, after the head of the UN’s World Food Programme called for billionaires like Musk to “step up”.
A large gift to charity would help reduce what Musk has said would be the biggest tax bill in US history. Days before he completed a series of stock sales worth more than $16bn – much of which was to cover the exercise of almost 23 million options – the chief executive tweeted he would pay more than $11bn in taxes for the year.
Much of Musk’s wealth is tied to Tesla, which overtook Toyota as the world’s most valuable auto-maker in July 2020 and joined a select group of companies with trillion-dollar valuations in October. Tesla’s market capitalisation has slipped since then to about $905bn at Monday’s close. The shares advanced as much as 3.7 percent before the start of regular trading on Tuesday.
As his net worth has grown, Musk has bristled at criticism of billionaires and said he’d sell his homes and most of his possessions. With a $227.3bn fortune, he’s more than $47bn richer than the world’s second-wealthiest person, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Musk has an eponymous foundation that’s become more active over recent years, with large, eight-figure gifts promised to the city near his South Texas spaceport, a $100 million competition for carbon removal and a $5m contribution to two scientists researching Covid-19. Before then, his foundation’s largest contributions were to donor-advised funds or DAFs, where charitable money can sit in perpetuity.
The Musk Foundation, which used to count Musk’s brother Kimbal as a director, has recently added a new face to its roster. Several grant recipients Bloomberg News spoke with have said their primary point of contact at the foundation is Igor Kurganov, a professional poker player-turned-philanthropist who is active in the effective altruism space.
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